Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!
New Otomate titles coming to Nintendo Switch
During the Dessert de Otomate 2022 event, Idea Factory announced numerous new titles coming to Nintendo Switch. It also announced a new brand focusing on male-centric friendships, Altergear, and that Otomate Party 2022 will run from September 3 to 4. I’d like to focus on the new titles here, though. I’m most interested in Sympathy Kiss (mostly due to its visuals); watch the trailer here:
There were four other titles announced. Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling is sweeter than ever, with a newlywed and sweetheart life awaiting. Hakuoki Shinkai: Tenun no Shou is set in Kyoto and the story is buried in history. KLAP!! Kind Love and Punish is being ported; the game first launched for PS Vita in 2015. Tsuiteru Hime to Tsuitenai Kishidan is about a princess and knights, set in the kingdom of Temilana in the world of Etrudia.
Only one of these titles has a launch date: KLAP!! Kind Love and Punish will be released on June 9 for Nintendo Switch in Japan.
Submerged: Hidden Depths leaves Stadia exclusivity
The Submerged sequel first launched for Google Stadia in late 2020, but it’s now time for Submerged: Hidden Depths to launch for other platforms. The team’s goal was to create a relaxing experience for players while showcasing the quality and depth of the game. The adventure title is often referred to as a relaxploration game, so its time relax and explore! Here’s a trailer:
Miku and Taku set out to uncover the mysteries of a sunken city in a vast world while being lost at sea in their small fishing boat. They will have to scale crumbling skyscrapers, encounter new creatures, and solve abandoned puzzles to piece together the story. The boat can be upgraded by findings parts. The game directly flows from Submerged, as players will experience further developed tools and puzzles.
Developed and published by Uppercut Games, Submerged: Hidden Depths will be released for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, and Xbox One on March 10.
Puzzle game Lit: Bend the Light launching for Nintendo Switch
LIT: Bend the Light is a puzzle game with open-ended solutions. The goal is simple: bend light to solve each puzzle. There are many, many ways to solve the puzzles, with each having multiple known solutions (and possible some unknown to even the developer right now). That’s what I mean by open-ended solutions. It’s said to be extremely intuitive, and accessible to all types of players. Here’s a trailer:
The game is set in an era before electricity existed, so the player becomes a kind of renaissance engineer creating their own solutions to light puzzles. It’s entirely about bending light with mirrors. The light behaves accurately, but are also often extremely difficult to create in real life. The visuals straddle the line between cartoon and realistic, and the music is designed to let the player really zone in on the puzzles.
Developed by Copperglass and published by OverGamez, Lit: Bend the Light will be released for Nintendo Switch on March 3 in America and Europe. It will launch in the Asian territories on March 10.
Paradigm Paradox coming west in Q4 2022
Paradigm Paradox is an otome visual novel set in the 2500s, when humans live only in isolated colonies. The protagonist is a student, bored with everyday life (so she basically represents most of us). She remains untouched by gossip about Heroes and Vermin (the enemy of humans), and unnoticed by all the hot guys at school. Here is a Japanese trailer from last year:
One night she sneaks out of her dorm only to encounter Vermin. Four girls show up out of nowhere and use miraculous abilities to repel the Vermin. This leads the protagonist to becoming a Hero, or someone who deals with the Vermin. Her life becomes quite busy with both school and work, but on the up side, all those good-looking guys want to talk to her now. But who has secrets? And what is the enemy’s true identity?
Developed By Otomate and published by Aksys Games, Paradigm Paradox will be released for Nintendo Switch in the fourth quarter of this year (so sometime this spring for those of us in the south, or this fall for those of us in the north). The game first launched in Japan during May 2021.
